UPDATE: See below for updates, marked with UPDATE in bold
Man Boobz is about to become We Hunted the Mammoth.
That is, I’m changing the name. And I may end up fiddling a bit with the look. The actual content of the blog itself won’t really be changing.
I’ve been kind of frustrated with the old name for a while. I came up with it on the spur of the moment when I first started this blog and, to be honest, it’s kind of a dopey name. It doesn’t really fit what the blog has become, and I’m a bit tired of explaining it to people (“no, boobs as in nincompoops, not breasts”).
The new name, as all you regular readers know, is based on a phrase that’s already associated with the site. Granted, I’ll have to explain its meaning to people, just as I’ve had to do with the old name, but at least it has a better story behind it. (See the FAQ for more details; the relevant stuff is at the end.)
Naturally, a new name means a new banner, and that’s where you all come in. Yep, we’re having a BANNER/LOGO CONTEST. It will run for a week, more or less, and then I’ll pick a winner or two. The prize is ā¦ your banner will be the banner! Also you will receive my undying gratitude. [UPDATE: Some commenters here have started talking about setting up a fund to provide the winner with prize money; if you’re interested, check the comments. I’ll make an official announcement if/when we get something set up. And of course I’ll donate!]
The rules are simple: You can submit artwork, or a logo, or a finished banner. It should have a mammoth in it. I like the mammoth artwork above ā and if you click on that image you’ll get a high-resolution version of it. But you can use some other public domain mammoth art, or draw your own mammoth. Stick to black and white and perhaps red.
The text should read: We Hunted the Mammoth. In smaller letters, the tagline: āMen’s Rightsā and the New Misogyny. I’m inclined to go with the same font I’m using now ā the free font Magnum. But if you’ve got a better idea, go for it. You can do the text by hand it you want. [UPDATE: Scratch that tagline, and replace it with The New Misogyny, tracked and mocked.]
If you’re making a banner, make it the same size of the current banner. Give it a transparent background. If you absolutely can’t fit everything into that space, I suppose you could make the banner a teensy bit taller.Ā
I want to thank JohnnyKaje for her outstanding work on the current Man Boobz banners ā including that amazing Cock Carousel artwork. I’ll put the old banners up on the FAQ page when the new banner goes up.
Feel free to submit rough sketches, to ask questions and make suggestions about the banner/logo — and about the site look and layout. You can post them online, or email them to me at [email protected].
I agree with others. “Misogyny. I mock it.” is simple, potent, and expressive. I think it is a brilliant slogan, and a classic, in my mind. It immediately sets the tone for your blog, Dave, in a distinct and powerful way. I’d keep it. (manboobz too, for the very same reasons.)
But you’ll do what you must, of course.
Fun mammoth trivia – the name derives from an archaic Russian (or possibly Uralic) word for ‘earth’. The first discoveries of mammoths buried in Siberian permafrost led locals to believe that the living animals burrowed underground like moles.
Also, mastodons were named that for a nipple-shaped protrusion on their teeth.
I like the new name idea! Also agree that it would be nice to keep something about mocking misogyny/misogynists.
I hope katz and/or LBT submit designs. I would be willing to help subsidize if they don’t want to work for free. (I like that I’ve become a little patron of the arts around here.)
I fully support the change. Whenever I brought up manboobz to people who don’t know the site, I felt the name made it lack a bit of, uh, cred. I thought it didn’t reflect the awesomeness of the content.
I think going back to ‘mocking misogyny since 2010’ (as serrana mentioned) would be fine. I’m not sure about ‘mocking the new misogyny’, since we mock a lot of people with 19th century misogyny as well.
I vote for “mocking” somehwhere in there, too.
I like “Mocking the new misogyny.” Its short and to the point.
I approve of the name change. I often feel reluctant to bring up the name of this website to other trans women – the current name sounds like a transmisogynistic joke, even though that’s not what it’s supposed to be. I know that I and some other trans women have been hurt by people who say that we’ll only ever have male breasts (“man boobs”), not “real” ones. That David is cis only worsens the bad impression.
I think that mentioning opposition to “Men’s Rights” in the slogan is the kind of inside reference that we criticize the MRA’s for using in their posters. “Men’s Rights” still sounds like a good, if not slightly confusing, idea to most people who are not informed about what the MRM actually is. We know that “Men’s Rights” in this case is a code word for “Men’s Privilege”, and oppose the movement on that basis, but MRA’s could easily point to a slogan on this site against “Men’s Rights” that could look really bad out of context. A slogan like “Men’s Rights” and the New Misogyny” sounds really informative to someone who already reads social justice/feminism blogs, but it sounds like anti-men propaganda in the hands of a sufficiently clever MRA. Somebody above suggested we change it to “Misogyny. We mock it.” I think that’s the best possible slogan for the site, and a way to keep the new site connected to the old one in a kind of spiritual way, and it pretty much sums up the site perfectly.
Why not called it “Misogynists – They Hunted The Mammoth For You”? That way you could keep the tagline and it would still make sense.
Vote for keeping the statement in the site description as well. “Mocking Misogyny” sounds good to me.
This is OT, but according to Getoffmyinternets Sunshine Mary is closing her blog…she posted this message explaining why:
http://wiki.getoffmyinternets.net/Asadgood-bye.htm
Good Stuff.
Damn, she sure is wordy. If you can’t be interesting then at least be succinct.
N’thing the votes for keeping Misogyny. I Mock It as the tagline. Like Serrana said, the new one is too narrow and scholarly sounding, and we need to be able to say “What part of ‘Misogyny. I mock it’ do you not understand?” to all the numbskulls who come complaining they’re so disappointed we don’t have serious debates here.
Ally, that’s another reason I want to get rid of the old name. Obviously, it’s not intended as a transmisogynist joke, but the fact that it could be read as one is a problem.
Hmm.
The New Misogyny, tracked and mocked.
Misogyny, tracked and mocked.
i vote for keeping the “Misogyny. I Mock It” tagline.
Damn, I’m not very good at graphics.
I like the “misogyny, I mock it” tagline though. -_- Although, if you wanted to work with the “We Hunted the Mammoth” title… hm. Uh. I don’t really know anymore. Um.
There’s nothing really new about the misogyny we all gleefully mock, though.
I get the reasoning behind changing Manboobz itself. I’ll miss it, but I suppose the overly sensitive could read some kind of transmisogyny into it, if they were squinting and trying really hard. However the mammoth thing is clunky, and “Misogyny. I mock it.” is pure genius and should be kept.
I don’t like the “tracked and mocked” line. It seems very flat to me.
What about Mammoth Hunting Dudebros as the header?
David Futrelle
I kind of think it would better if you just kept the name “Manboobz” for your blog. I like the name and it would less confusing.
Will the name change include a new URL?
I like the new name. š
If you’re going to abandon the old name, I don’t understand why you’d change it to a name that makes even less immediate sense to the casual web surfer. “We hunted the Mammoth” sounds like an outdated anthropology blog. If you’re going to change the branding, it would be a good opportunity to make sure the blog’s title more closely matches the blog’s mission, even to people who have never visited it before.
What about “They Hunted the Mammoth – I mock the misogyny.”
I agree with cloudiah. I would also be happy to subsidise artists if that would help.
Also, I also like “misogyny. I mock it.” I can also see what trans_commie is saying about “manboobz” and how it might give a bad first impression to trans women.